It really takes something for the most chill team in the most hip league in sports to be the central figure in something cheesy and awkward, but that’s what happened on Tuesday night when the Golden State Warriors were presented with their championship rings.
It’s not their fault, nor the NBA’s. It’s just that for some reason the home opener for the defending champs each year, specifically the bit where the jewelry is doled out and the banner is unfurled, always gets kind of cringy.
It is “honestly the weirdest night of the year,” said none other than Stephen Curry recently, and he should know, this being the third time, sigh, when he has had to suffer through being lauded as a world champion.
But why?
The root of the weirdness might be that pro athletes, particularly the very best ones, have short memories when it comes to their success. So too, do fans of the teams that work themselves into a position to be classified as a dynasty. As enjoyable as winning the title and sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers was for Golden State, by Tuesday it already felt like not just yesterday’s news, but early June’s.
For the past four months Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and company celebrated, rested, reset, and eventually worked themselves into a mindset where the only target was doing it all over again. And then, seconds before the tip-off of a new campaign with equally lofty aspirations, “Hey boys, it’s time for the prizes.”
“You're celebrating something that happened four months ago,” Curry said, back in September. “And then you've got to appreciate the moment, see the banner fall, feel the energy from the crowd. And then you've got to put the rings back, go warm up for two-and-a-half minutes and then play an NBA basketball game when the other team is salivating, waiting to get a hold of you after seeing the ring ceremony.”
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The whole fuss is probably outdated, but it is what it is. The NBA embraces modernity often enough to be given a pass on this one. The good news for the league is that it got the cheesiest part of its entire season out of the way on night one.
The ceremony had its moments, none of them especially memorable. Curry counted down from "five" for the banner to fall, and there was a sweet little segue when an equipment manager of three decades’ service was wheeled out and given his ring on court.
It dragged on a bit. The rings, made by Jason of Beverly Hills, are quite something. It is a rare sight to see a large man wear a ring the size of his fist. On his pinky.
But the event was kind of like the opening ceremony of the Olympics, although thankfully shorter. By the end you just wanted the games to begin.
And soon enough, they did.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr joked on TNT: "If we win we are going to say we rode the emotion of ring night. If we lose we are going to say we were emotionally spent."
The Warriors haven’t always come out of such situations firing, likely for the reasons Curry laid out. But they quickly hit their stride against an undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder and within a few minutes Durant had heard something he didn’t like.
There he was, staring down bench-ridden former teammate Russell Westbrook on the sideline over a comment that didn’t meet his approval, fire and fury in his eyes, and probably not a thought of last year’s ring on his mind.
Ah, there we go, that’s more like it. The season is really underway.
Follow Rogers on Twitter @RogersJourno
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